As soon as the first smart home device launched, I’ve started wondering: who was going to put a leash on what we now call The Internet of Things. Surely all with an interest in this age of ultra-connectivity and smart devices have had at least one vision where all these things around us turned against us and took over. Sounds scary, no? Just recently, Stephen Hawking’s warning regarding artificial intelligence and how it could end humankind made international news. The first test space for the internet of things and artificial intelligence is the “smart home.” We are now witnessing the evolution from building and home automation to smart homes: this evolution is driven by the progressing maturity of the Internet of Things and the use of artificial intelligence. Current significant technological challenges revolve around the immaturity of home intelligence and the means and ways to “educate” it. Romanian antivirus firm Bitdefender strives to do just that, although not directly. Bitdefender BOX is a physical network device described as “the security solution for the Internet of Things,” but not only that. The BOX is claimed to be a defense against all security layers, usually sold only to businesses, such as botnets, phishing, data theft, or everyday malware. The hardware piece took over one year of assiduous work to be complete was designed to secure not only PCs, but also tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, smart fridges, lighting systems, and alarm systems connected to Wi-Fi. Bitdefender BOX is a fascinating hybrid between a router, network firewall, and intrusion prevention system. Its specifications are far from impressive – single-core 400 MHz MIPS microprocessor, 16 MB Flash memory, 64-MB DDR2 RAM, two 10/100 Ethernet ports and a wireless chipset that supports the 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi needs, capable of speeds of...